UnionFAQs

What Are Strikes?

The topic of striking will necessarily come up whenever unions are being
discussed. The thing is, nobody really wants a strike to happen. Workers
generally just want to be able to do their job in good conditions, while being
paid fairly and in dignity. Strikes can be harrowing affairs for everyone
involved.

But in a way, it's the hypothetical possibility of calling a strike that forms
the basis of our power when we unionize. It's because our labour is the source
of all profits that the idea of workers withdrawing that labour is so
threatening to bosses. It's our biggest bargaining chip.

Ideally, strikes would never happen, and reason would always prevail in
negotiations with bosses. When strikes do happen, it's because those
negotiations already failed, and an acceptable agreement couldn't be reached
between management and the union. Everybody wants to avoid that and find a
better solution, but the important thing to remember is that without the
potential to call a strike as a last-resort measure, workers would have no real
leverage with bosses, and bosses would have no reason to take them seriously.